Boston has a long history of crashes like that. I can recall, in the '80s, there were LRVs in the Riverside yard with both ends crash-wrecked. There were enough such wrecks that the T would couple smashed halves of articulateds together. Of course, what they didn't do was change their personnel, training, personnel, policies, personnel or procedures. I'm from Boston ... you don't want to know what happens to your Federal tax payment went it reaches that city.

The driver of the trolley was also carrying a gun in addition to the cell phone. The driver admitted to possessing a loaded .40-caliber Smith and Wesson gun in his backpack at the time of the accident.

Please keep this relevant to the collision. What the motorman was doing on his phone (specifically, the fact that he was using it is enough) and what was in his bag are personnel matters irrelevant to the incident.

The fact that he was using it is a fireable offense (I think), but there is a difference between glancing at the cell phone for a second and navigating around & using an app. It is strong evidence that he was a distracted driver.

The operator was not a driver, I've never seen a steering wheel on a streetcar. Given the facts of the incident, I'd be more concerned if distraction was ruled out as it would indicate either some sort of medical episode or malice, or some catastrophic equipment failure which would bring into question the safety of operating any of that fleet anymore.

(sigh of relief) Fortunately for the fleet, the collision was blamed on human error.

Now I recall a similar rear-ender crash on the Mattapan line some ten years ago where at least one news report was headlined, "Lack of signals blamed for trolley crash."

... bring into question the safety of operating any of that fleet anymore ...

And some 20 years ago a PCC (all electric) in Pittsburgh lost its brakes in a downhill tunnel approaching downtown and of course failed to make the right turn at the bottom of the hill. It ran off the track and into the street just beyond. Shortly thereafter the remaining PCCs there were pulled from service permanently except for a short almost level ground shuttle (from Drake Loop to a temporary loop at the junction with the main line (from South Hills Village).

(To the theater stage manager) Quit twiddling the knob and flickering the lights while the audience is entering and being seated. (To the subway motorman) Quit twiddling the knob and dinging the doors while passengers are getting off and others are waiting to board.

CRail wrote:Given the facts of the incident, I'd be more concerned if distraction was ruled out as it would indicate either some sort of medical episode or malice, or some catastrophic equipment failure which would bring into question the safety of operating any of that fleet anymore.

Guess You didn't read the Globe article where Transit Police said he was on the phone or transit police saying he gave his bag to someone to bring to the office with the offending phone in it.

2 Quotes from the Globe: "The search showed phone activity on the Reddit website at 3:10 p.m., around the same time as the crash." and "The operator of the train that had been trying to push the disabled trolley heard a distraught Mattison say after the crash, “I didn’t see him, I didn’t know he was there” and “I’m screwed,” the affidavit said."

An MBTA trolley driver now facing criminal charges after crashing a Mattapan trolley into another train late last year has an eight-page driving record, with multiple license suspensions while he worked at the T — violations the agency said it wasn’t aware of at the time.

Leroy Mattison, 41, is due to be arraigned today in Dorchester District Court in connection with the Dec. 29 crash that injured 17 people, after transit police said he was using his cellphone to delete a Reddit.com post when he accidentally rammed another stopped trolley. He also had a loaded gun in his backpack on the train.

Mattison, who says he has a firearms license, defended himself in a phone interview yesterday, saying he’s “not a bad person” and hopes that everyone injured is “safe.”